S. 3655 would extend the authorization of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) through 2027. The five‑member board facilitates investigations of unsolved civil rights cases by increasing the volume of documents available to the public. Under current law, the board’s authority will end in 2024.
According to the Department of Justice, about 115 civil rights cases remain unsolved. Using information from NARA, CBO expects that the costs of implementing the bill would be similar to the costs for other boards, such as the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board. On that basis, CBO estimates that implementing S. 3655 would cost $5 million over the 2025-2027 period; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriations.
NARA is authorized to charge fees to cover some or all of the costs of processing certain requests; those fees are classified as offsetting receipts (or as reductions in direct spending) and are available to spend without further appropriation. Thus, CBO estimates that enacting the bill would have a negligible effect on net direct spending.
The costs of the legislation, detailed in Table 1, fall within budget function 800 (general government).
